With 40,000 Soviet troops and nuclear warheads 50 times stronger than those dropped on Hiroshima assembled in Cuba, 4 nuclear-armed submarines patrolled the waters around the island when President Kennedy ordered the blockade of Cuba.
With President Castro convinced of an imminent invasion, and U.S. destroyers persistently dropping explosives in the waters, tensions further rose on Oct. 27 when the Soviets shot down a U-2 spy plane over eastern Cuba. Kennedy indicated then that time was running out.
In Captain Vadim Orlov's B-59 submarine, with communication with superiors impossible, the temperature over 100 degrees F. and the oxygen supply running out, one of the submarine's officers ordered a nuclear torpedo assembled.
"We're going to blast them now!" screamed Second Captain Valentin Grigoroevich. "We will die, but we will sink them all! We will not disgrace our Navy!"
It was only the intervention of another officer, Second Captain Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov,that prevented disaster. He insisted that conditions for firing the torpedo, including damage to the submarine's hull, had not been reached.
"If that torpedo had been fired, nuclear war could have started right there," said former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
"One of the lessons of this conflict is, for God sakes, think about how your enemy reacts to your actions," McNamara said, "We didn't plan to invade Cuba, but he (Castro) thought we did."
A good lesson for all of us, Mr. McNamara. And God Bless You, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov!
Source:
Havana Convention Hall, Havana, Cuba.
Oct. 12-13, 2002
Attending:
Top Kennedy advisors, former Soviet Generals and Cuban officials
P.S. Cuban President Castro, who was visiting Russia
near the time of this incident, is now known to have remarked to Premier
Khruschev, "If Cuba must be sacrificed, we are ready!"
Khruschev was heard to remark to one of his aides,
"This man wants to start a nuclear war. He must be nuts!"
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